


Dyed in Memories

by polandspringz



Series: Designing in Devildom [6]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Cosplay, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, all the brothers appear but not all are prominent in the plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29842368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polandspringz/pseuds/polandspringz
Summary: Poland and the brothers all take a trip to the human world to visit an anime convention!
Relationships: Lucifer & Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Lucifer/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Main Character/Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)
Series: Designing in Devildom [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864159
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	Dyed in Memories

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write this story for a few months now! I really miss going to anime conventions and they've all been cancelled for the foreseeable future, so this story was a way for me to catalog some of the most memorable moments I've had at them. This story is entirely self-indulgent, but I hope you still enjoy!

“Can you guys slow down? Poland, I don’t know how you are running in those heels!”

“Poland, Levi, slow down before you break your ankle or run into someone,” Lucifer reprimanded, walking steadily behind the group of his brothers and the human exchange student as they made their way into the convention hall. They had briefly been given permission to return to the human world, only because Poland had a cosplay event she was desperate not to miss and Levi demanded to join her. Asmo was along as their photographer, but suddenly everyone saw it fit to go too and Lucifer ended up chaperoning everyone.

Again.

Poland started to dart away again, but Lucifer heard the sound of her stiletto striking the ground at a bad angle and reached out to grip her arm before she could slip and die, “I’m serious. Slow down.”

“I’ll be fine, seriously Luce,” she shrugged him off lightly, “I used to wear heels every day to middle school and high school. I may have weak ankles, but my calves are built for these!”

“I would like you to rethink if what you said was in _any way_ reassuring.”

“Hey, hey, Poland~! What time does the burlesque panel start?” Asmo asked, holding out the schedule that came with their bag of goodies.

“We’re not going to that Asmo! We’ll need you at the masquerade when Poland and I go on stage!” Levi grumbled, “Lucifer, let her go already! We’re not going to get to do everything we want before the masquerade unless we hurry up!”

Poland looked up at Lucifer and smiled. He was used to her wearing wigs, but he had to admit she looked so different today in her full costume. She was certainly in her element, all decked out in false lashes, smudges of gold and rust colored eyeshadow, but seeing her in a blonde wig was perhaps the most shocking feature, as it was so toned down from her usual assortment of vibrant colors.

“I’m happy you came with us today, but I can take care of myself. I’ve been going to conventions since I was in middle school, you can trust me.”

She slowly pulled away, her arm coming free from his grasp easily before she walked over to Levi, guiding him forward towards the artist alley. Her white dress fluttered, the tails of the scarf around her neck trailing behind as the two of them walked on, chattering excitedly. Her character didn’t even need those sharp heels, but because she wasn’t very tall she opted for shoes that gave her an extra boost so she could match Levi, who was supposed to be cosplaying her twin.

Mammon and his other brothers moved forward after them, caught up in their own oohing and awing at the sight of the cosplayers milling about. Poland could look after Levi, but there were other things to worry about, like finding a restaurant the moment Beel got hungry so they didn’t end up eating any humans, preventing Mammon from committing any petty thefts, and making sure Asmo didn’t get too handsy with the cosplayers. As he followed the group into the artist alley, he pulled the convention area map out of their bag and began to plan.

* * *

“Asmo, do you think you could get some low angle shots as well? The setting over here doesn’t really match our characters, so if we could get the sky in the background more than the city…”

“Hmm, I think I can manage that. But do you really want to take photos here? I thought you would have wanted to take some in the wooded area over there.”

Poland had gathered them all in a small park across from the convention center, which was already quite crowded with cosplayers and their professional photographers taking photos along the cobblestone path. She had settled on sticking to the outside perimeter by these lattice walls built up on top of the stone fence barriers that encircled the park. Lucifer and the others had been delegated to guarding their bags while Levi and her tried to settle on poses while Asmo wielded the camera.

“We can go over there after. I like this park though, it’s kind of a tradition for me to take photos here every year I come to this convention,” a gust of wind blew and she tucked back some strands of hair as a wistful look crossed her face, “Before that, the convention was located closer to where I grew up, and there was a long walkway between the hotel and the convention center covered by an awning and on either side was grass and beautiful foliage. Cosplays used to cover the lawn, but now we’re all packed in the convention center, so you don’t get the old feeling of that unless you're in this park, I feel.”

She clapped her hands together and snapped out of her gaze, startling all of them before they could comment, “Levi! We should take some shots together! Almost all of the promotional art has us pictured together, let’s try to recreate some poses from that!”

“Uh, s-sure!”

They scanned their D.D.Ds for references before taking photos together. After that, Poland asked for some solo shots, and Lucifer and Mammon’s hearts stopped when she jumped up onto the stone barriers and began to climb on the lattice with her stilettos scraping the narrow ledge precariously.

“Can you try and be more careful?!” Mammon shouted, “Do you want your day to be cut short by having to go to the hospital?”

“As if one of you couldn’t just heal me. I’ll be fine. I’ve done this before in worse shoes.”

“Again, not reassuring,” Lucifer sighed, “Please, allow one of us to spot you at least. What pose are you even trying to do?”

“Well climbing is one of the mechanics in the game, but I can’t really climb a building in real life without getting hurt, so if I hang off it like this-” she swung her one foot out and held with one hand so she was leaning off it, “It will look kind of like what I do in the game!”

“Ah, Poland, be careful. The wind,” Levi said, glancing away as another gust blew by. Her skirt flipped up for a moment and Mammon darted forward to tug it down, but she swatted him away.

“You all have such little faith in me! There are tons of convention creeps, so I always dress prepared underneath. Besides, Levi, my character wears bloomers underneath anyway. I’m not going to flash anyone. And Lucifer, before you say anything, I’ve only had actual encounters with _two_ strange people at conventions, so don’t worry.”

She held two fingers up and shoved them towards him for emphasis. He merely glared up at her, not bothering to speak what she knew he was going to say.

“You don’t have to worry! I’ve never gone to a convention by myself, so I was never in any danger.”

“Still, tell us who it was. Maybe we can still track them down,” Mammon cracked his knuckles with glee.

“It was years ago, and they were minor things. Not worth worrying about them now. Shoo, I want to take a picture before I start sweating too much.”

She swatted them away again, adjusting her grip on the lattice before swinging back again. She directed Asmo with her free hand about where she thought would be good for him to start, but then left it to decide where he would actually take the photos. Together, Mammon and him called out directions for how she should turn her head or if she should point her foot or fix her wig. She had mentioned when she first asked Asmodeus to be her photographer that she always felt she needed more directing when it came to photos.

_“I would really appreciate it if you came with me. Your Devilgram photos always look wonderful, and when it comes to being in the moment, I always blank out and forget to think what’s best.”_

Satan split off from where Beelzebub and Belphegor were standing near the bags, approaching Levi and Lucifer who were standing back watching as Poland began to walk across the stone ledge, going under the shade of a nearby tree to get different lighting for the next photos.

“It must be hard,” he muttered, bringing a hand to his chin, “thinking of all of this once you’re here. Unless you have a real photographer after all, or space in a studio booked or checked out the location ahead of time, you really don’t know how much you’ll have to work with.”

“Not to mention she’s probably already overstimulated,” Levi added, “With the wig, all the makeup, and then the noise, it’s kind of a lot to then ask you to think about creating art.”

“That pro wrestling match in the lobby was interesting. Prisaris probably would have liked it. It’s a shame Diavolo didn’t approve of her coming to the convention with Poland.”

“She doesn’t really have a human guise, but that would hardly matter at a convention.”

“Rules are rules,” Lucifer stated, crossing his arms, “Even if she would have blended in, she might have drawn _too much_ attention, which would have been bad. Besides, all of you demanding to go already was a stretch.”

Satan snorted, “Lucifer, if I recall, you were one of the people who made it a stretch to begin with.”

“Don’t speak to me like that when you were whining just as much to go.”

“Luce, Beel’s hungry. Can we go to the food court inside for a minute?” Belphegor called out.

“Fine. Do you have enough money?”

“Human money? Uh… Well Beel is already walking off, should I follow-”

“Fine, I’m coming. Just try and stop him from stealing from any of the booths before I can cover the cost.”

Lucifer stormed off after the twins. Satan and Levi watched as Mammon reached up and helped Poland down from the ledge, although she continued to insist she was-

“-fine. Although if you just wanted to hug me or do a couple photoshoot with me, you could just ask.”

“It’s not like that! I was just-”

“Wait, is anyone watching our bags?!”

All four demons tensed as Poland whizzed past, rounding the bushes to where they had set her ita bag and purchases down. She quickly examined and counted everything, and everyone let out a sigh of relief when nothing appeared to be missing.

“Would anyone really try to steal anything? Everyone that we’ve run into that’s asked for your photo seemed rather friendly,” Satan asked.

“Conventions are home to all sorts of people. There’s always going to be strangers, weirdos, or people that just make you question yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, in my senior year of high school I came here with one of my friends. I normally go with a group, but things were rough that year so I just came with her, and it was her first time at a convention ever, so I was sort of being the vigilant one as she ran around. When she was taking photos for me right over here, someone came up and offered to take a photo of the two of us on our phone. We were both not thinking, and handed my phone over to the guy and he _did_ take a picture of us. But when he was still holding my phone, he suddenly revealed to us that he was homeless and asked if we could spare any money.”

She heard collective gasps from them as she fiddled with the zipper on her bag, stuffing her wallet back inside amongst the Japanese snacks she had bought.

“I wouldn’t categorize someone like that as a weirdo, just a person that needed help. But, I still didn’t like how he essentially tricked us and then held my phone hostage, although I’m not sure he meant it that way. My friend didn’t have any money leftover really, and I only had larger bills given to me by my dad, so I gave him a twenty. I don’t remember if he gave my phone back before or after I handed him the money, but we were standing right around here, so even if there were people around, we were kind of alone on the outside of the fence. I felt cornered. It felt like if I didn’t give him anything, our bags and our phones were right there.”

“I get why they would need to do that, but I’m sorry you went through that,” Satan said, putting a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

“Is that why you didn’t want me trying to beat up the guys you said were creepy? Was he one of them?” Mammon asked.

“I was wrong to say he was creepy, again I understood why he did it, but yes, he’s one of the two incidents I remember.”

“What was the other one?”

“Oh that guy? I was fourteen visiting a small college convention and attending a group photoshoot meetup. We were doing couple or shipping photos and I was the only Weiss cosplayer there, so I had to do a bunch of shots with each other's character. This one guy cosplaying Jaune had been acting kind of strange, but I didn’t think much of it until we were standing side by side and had sixty seconds to plan our poses, and he said I should step on him or sit in his lap. He must have been at least in his twenties, so it’s safe to say I was uncomfortable.”

There was a moment of silence and as Poland continued to mess with her belongings, she missed the dark rage that crossed all four of the brothers’ faces, Satan’s especially as they all mentally vowed if they could find out who that guy ever was, to kill him.

“I, of course, did not do that. But because we were running out of time and we didn’t really get much direction from the person running the meetup, all our poses came out crummy, although I don’t really like looking back on them anyway. Instead of actually stepping on him, I was going to leave my foot in the air to _pretend_ I was about to do it, but that was one of my early cosplay days and I wasn’t wearing shorts under my dress, so I didn’t feel comfortable lifting my leg up actually, so I look super awkward leaning back weird and the scene didn’t come across _at all.”_

She slipped the straps of the mini backpack through her arms and jostled it a few times and she tried to settle it against her back and over the layers of her complicated costume. As she stood, a wistful look appeared again as she looked towards the convention doors where cosplayers, passerbys, and smokers walked, some rotating in and out of the building, others lingering on the steps of a nearby staircase, and more chatting excitedly as they waited for the buses or taxis to arrive to drive them back to their hotels or down the street.

“Although, I do miss when I could go to conventions and feel that excitement I did as a child. Even amongst moments like that…”

The brothers shared a glance between them at that, all of them collectively shrugging, unsure of what to say. They didn’t have to though, as she turned around and beamed at all of them.

“Shall we get going then? We’ll have to get to the green room to prepare for the masquerade, Levi! Asmo, you and everyone else will have to get in line to try and get in with the rest of the audience members.”

* * *

“Ah, I’m so tired,” Poland groaned as she wrenched her shoe off, “My feet are dying!”

“I would say ‘I told you so’, but I would honestly prefer to wait until you aren’t sitting on the dirty floor of the dealer’s room,” Lucifer said, hovering over her.

“It does say no sitting, you know,” Levi pointed out.

“It’s fine. I’ll move when the staff tells me to move. I honestly can’t take another step. Besides, I don’t want to have to put my shoe back on yet.”

“You shouldn’t have taken it off then!” Mammon scoffed.

“I can carry you if you want. There are chairs in the food court, right?”

“Nah, the tables are always full, and I’m never comfortable sitting near strangers at cons. Always too many awkward moments of trying to just relax and two cosplayers start making out in the chairs next to you. Also, I would appreciate it Lucifer, but people might get the wrong idea if they see you carrying a grown woman around.”

“What sort of idea would they get?” His brow furrowed with confusion.

“Something kinky or romantic maybe? You do have that dark vampire aesthetic, Lucifer,” Asmo explained, “If they saw you carrying a fair maiden-”

“Or they’ll just think you’re kidnapping me. Ah, every convention I say I’m going to plan better and not wear crazy shoes but then I always pick the worst characters to dress as! It was kind of a joke for a while in my cosplay friend group that we could never dress for the weather. Always a magical girl in a snowstorm, and then when it was summer I was always running around in costumes with accessories like velvet and fur lined capes. Ah, those were the days.”

The brothers exchanged another concerned look.

“You keep saying stuff like that. Are you not having fun today?”

“What? Asmo, of course I’m having fun!” She circled her arms and surged forward off the wall, sitting up with energy, “I’ve never done the masquerade before, so that was super exciting! I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Your performance was really good,” Belphie smiled, “I slept during all the other ones, but yours was cool. Levi’s acting was a little flat though.”

“H-Hey! I tried my best, I’ve never done a performance like that before!”

“Don’t say that, Belphie! It’s hard to do anything super big in only a minute time slot, and if anything I did poorly! Levi was following our rehearsal, I tripped at one point and had to improv the dance from there.”

“You seemed to be really familiar with fighting with a sword. How did you throw it like that?” Satan asked.

“Oh, did I never tell you guys? I did color guard when I was in high school! I never actually got to spin weapons though, but in terms of how you throw the weight around, as long as I model all my props to be balanced like the flags I worked with, it’s not that different. I was supposed to do a parallel toss, but because I tripped I did some improv and spun it around my back instead.”

“Oh, so that’s why Levi dodged suddenly! He was expecting a toss.”

“Yeah, sorry about that Levi.”

“No, no! It’s my fault for not being able to adapt.”

“I think you both did fine,” Beelzebub said, “It looked cool even if you messed up. I couldn’t tell.”

“Anyway, is there anywhere else in the center we could go so you could sit that isn’t on the floor? The staff are starting to stare, and I would prefer to avoid confrontation.”

“Hm. Well there is the karaoke room? There should be chairs in there, but we’re with a large group, so we’ll have to be quiet when entering to not draw too much attention.”

Lucifer bent down and scooped Poland up in his arms, Mammon grabbing her shoes and bags as they left the convention room, following as Poland pointed directions down the carpeted halls of the upstairs of the convention center, towards one of the many panel ballrooms.

* * *

It was late, and the karaoke room was mostly abandoned now. They had been in here for hours now, Asmo eating up the attention and cycling through as many songs as he could even if he didn’t know that many. His voice was certainly angelic, but Poland felt kind of bad for the poor staff member who was stuck here and just waiting for the clock to strike eight so he could officially declare the room closed for the night. Mammon and Levi were apparently going to sing a duet together next, as they wanted to kick Asmo off the mic already. The few strangers outside of their group seemed to have no interest in singing and were either scrolling through their phone and using the empty chairs as a place to sit, or were eating up the chaos of the loudmouthed brothers all shouting at each other.

Lucifer was leaning against the wall in the back of the room, and as Mammon and Levi argued over what song they should sing, Poland got up and joined him.

“You’re not going to sing? I thought you loved music.”

“Playing piano is one thing. I’d rather not embarrass myself in front of strangers trying to sing one of these… anime ballads.”

“You can call them pop music, Lucifer. That’s all they are.”

“What about you? Why haven’t you sang anything?”

“Oh I could never,” she waved her hand and laughed quietly. The music from the speakers began to play, and Mammon was clearing his throat as he began some dramatic monologue as if he was starting a concert, “I’ve always liked karaoke, but I’m bad at singing. Plus, my voice is always shot after a day running around the con. It’s a bit too late for me now.”

“I doubt you’re as bad at singing as you think.”

“Oh, you would be surprised! I can’t go high at all, but I don’t know how to go low without sounding like a demon! I can only ever stick in my speaking voice without straining myself.”

Lucifer smirked at her, “You mean to tell me in all the years you’ve attended a con like this, you’ve _never_ done karaoke?”

“Oh, I have! But the one time I did it was honestly _so_ embarrassing! I can’t fathom holding a mic again after how that went down!”

“What went down?”

“Well, I was dressed as an idol character, and I wanted to do one of her songs, but I thought it would be cool if I had the video of her in the background instead of just the lyrics. I was going to sing the English version of the song, but we couldn’t find a version of the music video with that, only the Japanese lyrics! I read them off my phone, but even though I prefaced that I would be singing the English version, I think everyone watching was still _super_ confused. I hated it!”

She pressed her hands to her cheeks and shook her head, shaking off the heat rising with her blush, “You think too much about things. I doubt anyone was thinking that hard about your performance. I’m sure they understood what was going on and weren’t confused.”

“Oh, but that wasn’t the worst of it! There was a music break at one part and I felt _so_ awkward just standing there and breathing, so I tried dancing and spinning a bit! I wanted to die so bad afterwards. My friend made me stand up and do a duet with her after, but I was shaking so badly! It was so cringey.”

“You’re a wonderful dancer, I’m sure you were fine.”

“I was fifteen. I was just a stupid kid who wanted attention, but couldn’t handle the actual eyes on me when it happened. And how do you know how good of a dancer I am?”

“I’ve danced with you at the retreat in Diavolo’s castle, and I saw you on stage today. You obviously know what you’re doing.”

“But that’s all choreographed or was formal dancing! Dancing without a script or doing anything modern is so hard. And I should know, I did _years_ of dance. From tap to jazz, ballet, hiphop to even acrobatics! But at the end of the day, my body just isn’t built for anything involving performance,” she threw her hands up and sunk against the wall with a shrug and a smile.

Lucifer eyed her suspiciously at that, his arms flexing as he adjusted them across his chest. He chose his next words carefully.

“Why do you talk about yourself like that?”

“Huh?”

“From everything you’ve told me, and everything I’ve seen, you are exceptionally trained. You’ve studied dance, have been going to events like this for years so you know how things work, where to take photos, you’ve even made all your own costumes. Why don’t you have more confidence in yourself? Especially here? I would have thought you would feel the most relaxed here.”

“It’s a whole different ball game when it comes to _singing,_ Lucifer. I was never able to get trained in _that.”_

“I’m not just talking about karaoke now. You’ve had that look in your eyes all day, and my brothers said you were looking like that even when I wasn’t around.”

  
“What look?”

“Like you’re regretting something.”

At that, her face fell. But just as quickly, a small smile reformed and she sighed.

“Ah. _That._ I mean, isn’t it only natural to look that way when you have lots of memories in one place?”

“Is this convention that important of a place to you?”

“I’ve been going to this con since I was _twelve._ Or thirteen maybe. It’s been so long I always forget. I’ve been here with so many people, but I think it’s more that I feel strong memories about cosplay in general, not just this convention.”

Mammon and Levi were getting near the end of their song. Some colored strobe lights flashed across the room. _Who had given them glow sticks?_ Things were getting out of control, but Lucifer didn’t want to pull away from the conversation now that he had finally gotten Poland to open up. Besides, they seemed to be having fun.

“I’ve cosplayed with so many people. First my sister, then my friends. I made a lot of friends through cosplay, and then through it and sometimes due to circumstances outside of it, I lost those friends too. Cosplay has always been my hobby, but it’s become so competitive lately. Not to say competitions are bad, I want to do those two, but it’s a different atmosphere now. It just makes me long for the good old days. Times not only when I was packed in a car to drive to some convention to hang with my friends all day, but times where I would just talk to my friends about things. Anime, manga, video games. Anything really. I’ve met so many friends through these communities, and there’s been some very important people to me that have just… well walked out of my life or I’ve had to cut out after time. Whenever I come to places like this, I think it’s unavoidable that thoughts like that would pop up.”

“You long for the times you had, when you would dream about doing things with them that you are now doing alone, is that it?”

“Yeah, I suppose. But karaoke isn’t one of those things. I’m just bad at it. I would know. I had a friend constantly tell me to shut up because I was ‘off key’ whenever I tried to sing. I’m not tone deaf, just wasn’t given the vocal chords for it.”

“Mammon wasn’t either, that’s not stopping him.”

She tried to stifle a laugh at that, but she began to shake so hard she ended up cackling. Mammon noticed up front and pointed a glow stick in her direction, shouting into the mic, “Hey! Don’t make fun of me, human! I’d like to see you up here singing already!”

“Seems like that’s your cue,” Lucifer said, reaching out and pushing her forward.

“What? No way!”

“Too late,” when she shoved her heels into the ground to try and stall him, Lucifer got off the wall and picked her up again, literally carrying her over his head to the front of the room where he plopped her down in between Mammon and Levi as the music to their song faded to a close.

A microphone was stuffed into her hand.

“I hate you,” she pouted, but she didn’t let go of the mic.

“It’s your turn. Why don’t you reprise that idol song you love so much?”

“You’re the worst,” she shoved him, but it was light and playful. He did not miss the happiness curling at the corner of her mouth as she turned beet red, “Type in Kisaragi Attention. I’ll figure out whether I’m doing the English or the Japanese lyrics when the song starts.”

“Very well,” he said, walking towards the computer, “Make sure to give us a full show.”

“Asmo, make sure you record this!” She shouted, “You might never see me like this again!”

“Excuse me,” Lucifer whispered to the staff member standing near the computer, “There’s a formal event I heard about? What night is it?”

“Oh the ball? Tomorrow night. Anyone can get in if they have a badge, but it’s a formal event, so we have a strict dress code. There’s more information in the schedule you received.”

“Thank you, we’ll be sure to look into it,” he said as he hit play on the computer. He walked towards the rows of chairs to join his brothers as the sound of a guitar alongside the thrumming beat of hands clapping began to buzz through the speakers. Poland stood nervously up front as Mammon and Levi abandoned her to stand to the side and give her space, but they shook their glowsticks in support, cheering for her loudly.

Poland stared down at the microphone, her heart beating wildly in her chest. _Did she even remember the lyrics? She didn’t have time to pull out her phone, but, wait, they would be on the screen if Lucifer searched up the right video._ She glanced back towards the projector, _oh good a lyric video. Well, I should still know it mostly. I guess I’ll be fine…?_

She glanced towards the audience. The other guests had left during Mammon and Levi’s song, and the staff member seemed to be stepping outside as well. That just left the brothers.

It was just her, and her friends in the audience.

_Her and her friends…_

“Give us a show!”

  
“Come on Poland!”

“Let’s see you dance!”

The clapping thrummed two times fast. The beat dropped, and the music geared up for the first verse.

Poland sucked in a deep breath, and lifted her head and smiled.

As she sang out the first note from her chest, she found her feet doing a little skip forward, and suddenly, all the weight in her chest became airy and light.

_“Woah, wherever do I think I’m going-”_

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus points if you can guess who Poland and Levi were cosplaying as. (It's one of my other obsessions lately) This story was actually supposed to be focused on Levi and Poland, but somehow when I was writing it I decided Lucifer was a better fit for the plot. (Also thanks to my friend Wisty for proof reading this for me! Everyone say thank you Wisty!!!)


End file.
